Celebrating diversity in the Arts
This International Women’s Day, we’re celebrating the two fantastic female artists that are currently exhibiting in our gallery space.
Sophie Ryder
© Sophie Ryder, Hugging, from bronze works, 2009.
We’re very excited to be hosting an extension of The Piece Hall’s Sophie Ryder exhibition throughout March and April. Visitors to our gallery will have the opportunity to see additional work by the artist and learn a little more about her practice.
Sophie ‘works big’ and her imposing sculptures which are inspired by animals and mystical creatures have been exhibited globally. Her current exhibition at The Piece Hall, our gallery and at Dean Clough provides a rare opportunity for her work to be seen right here in Calderdale.
Fiona Pickles
Artist Fiona Pickles in her residency studio at Artworks.
We’re also pleased to be hosting Fiona Pickles as our resident artist in our gallery space. Fiona describes herself as a ‘botanical alchemist’. She experiments with a variety of different materials, creating amazing installations with florals and other natural elements.
Inspired by the overlooked and ordinary, Fiona is using her residency at Artworks to develop other disciplines and identify new ways to embrace imperfection and the natural world.
Previous exhibition – Our Greenham
Sophie and Fiona’s exhibitions follow the fantastic ‘Our Greenham’ exhibition. Running from February 2020 - December 2021 the exhibition featured memories and memorabilia from the women of the Calder Valley who were at Greenham Common.
‘Our Greenham’ was the perfect way to mark 40 years since women first arrived at Greenham to protest the British Government's decision to store nuclear weapons on the site. It went on to be one of the longest and most famous examples of feminist protest.
To find out more about the exhibition visit our Archive page.